海角大神

China has dismissed a US call to halt construction on a new artificial island it is building in the disputed South China Sea, calling the US "biased." The island under construction is reportedly large enough to accommodate an airfield, and would give China a new base of operations in a region where it contests claims with several other countries.

Retired Chinese Gen. Luo Yuan told the state-owned Global Times that the 3,000-meter-long island being dredged on Fiery Cross Reef, also known as Yongshu Reef, in the Spratly Islands "is completely legitimate and justifiable." His comments echo China's longstanding line, reiterated last month by a Chinese defense spokesman, that "China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and their adjacent waters."

The Spratly Islands, whose surrounding waters are home to numerous natural resources, are contested by several countries, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. But unlike most of its competitors, notes defense outlet IHS Janes, China has lacked a base of operations in the region with an airfield.

But Janes reported last Thursday that satellite imagery shows that over the past three months, China appears to have built a 3,000-meter by 400- to 500-meter island on top of Fiery Cross Reef. The Chinese military site had already been home to "a pier, air-defence guns, anti-frogmen defences, communications equipment, and a greenhouse," but the expanded island looks large enough to host an airfield.

The US over the weekend called on China "to stop its land reclamation program and engage in diplomatic initiatives to encourage all sides to restrain themselves in these sorts of activities," Reuters reports. But China had little use for the US suggestion.

"I think anyone in the outside world has no right to make irresponsible remarks on China-related activities," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday.

海角大神 reported in August that this year has seen a much testier relationship between China and its fellow claimants of the South China Sea. China has made "a series of forceful steps" to bolster its position in the region 鈥� but they appear "to violate an agreement that China signed with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 12 years ago in which both sides pledged to 'exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability.'"

But China's forceful push 鈥� spurred in part by President Xi Jinping's effort to appear strong to the public back home 鈥� risks alienating its neighbors, and making its coexistence with them more challenging than it needs to be. 鈥淐hina鈥檚 Navy could already beat all the ASEAN navies. The question is whether it would be worth it,鈥� Xue Li, head of the international strategy department at the China Academy of Social Sciences, told the Monitor. 鈥淲e would pick up a sesame seed and throw away a watermelon.鈥�